Pick A Point, by Icicle Thief

Pick A Point

by Icicle Thief

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1.	The Sun Sets Late in June 04:22	info	download
2.	New Wave Tehran 03:19	info	download
3.	Drop Dead Gorges 04:19	info	download
4.	Monster Show 04:22	info	download
5.	"The Ukraine is Weak" 01:30	info	download
6.	Holiday at the Cat Cafe 03:58	info	download
7.	Sail the Little Minch 03:35	info	download
8.	Kitten Sighs 04:18	info	download
9.	All the Crickets Croon to Me 03:32	info	download
10.	Imitation of the Dance 01:57	info	download

about

What sounds am I hearing in this music?
• Electronic beats
• Pianos, harps, guitars, marimbas, horns and various orchestras
• My voice (often distorted, chipmunked or otherwise manipulated)
• Other sampled voices (including a Ukranian choir, a yodeling cowboy, a pair of Japanese vocalists and a Scottish folk singer)
• Digital noise and damaged vinyl

Where did the samples come from?
• Most of them came from the Community Audio section of the Internet Archive (archive.org), a nonprofit digital library. The sounds used were either in the public domain or posted under a Creative Commons license. See individual tracks for references and links. I can spend hours searching the site for unusual sounds. It never disappoints. It hosts a huge stockpile of unusual music that’s been rescued from obscurity by people who spend their time digitizing sounds from very old records. I especially love the slightly eerie sound of very old orchestral recordings.

Where did the beats come from?
• Software on my laptop. I don’t own physical drum machines.

What were some of the main influences for this music?
• Brian Eno (especially “Another Green World,” “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” and "Drums Between the Bells")
• Steve Reich’s phase music
• Erik Satie’s furniture music
• Chipmunked pop songs on YouTube
• 12” remixes from the 1980s

When was this music made?
• Nights and weekends, but mostly nights.

What are the lyrics about?
• In the songs that have lyrics, they’re not particularly autobiographical. Since I built the backing tracks from a few simple loops, I built the lyrics out of references to books or articles I’d been reading or the lyrics of whatever music I used in the sample. There’s also a reference to a Seinfeld episode I watched. It’s hard to write lyrics as quickly as I can create music for a new song, so I drew from whatever was handy when I thought I should sing on a track.

Is Icicle Thief some sort of movie reference?
• Yes.

Is “Pick A Point” some sort of movie reference?
• Yes.

credits

released February 14, 2013

Share this album with anyone you like. See individual tracks for sample sources and Creative Commons details.

license

some rights reserved

about

Icicle Thief Colorado

A guy, his laptop and some old records got together to make some songs for you.

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